The Hoop Circuit Summer Championships Preview
The final in-state AAU tournament takes place this weekend as The Hoop Circuit Summer Championships will kick off on Friday at The Hoop in Salem. Top teams from Oregon and Washington will as usual be in town but a couple of other select out-of-state squads will also be in the field for three days of what should be very intense competition.
As opposed to a day or so of pool play, the event format will be in the form of a championship bracket from the very start. Here’s a look at the top 17U teams that will be in action.
The top in-state teams to watch are the usual suspects – Hoop Salem, Jordan Fly Select, Team Fly Select-Williams, and Deep III. In fact on Friday night, all four of those teams in addition to four out-of-state teams will play four showcase games before they rejoin the bracket on Saturday. For Hoop Salem, Mason Lomax (2020 Sprague) and Gabe Reichle (2020 Wilsonville) have played well in the month of July and the addition of Kobe Withers (2020 Sprague) will make them one of the top teams in the entire field.
Jordan Fly Select has also been playing well and in particular the addition of Evan Inglesby (2020 Barlow) this summer has elevated the team’s play. Stalwarts Jesse White (2020 Barlow), Joe Juhala (2020 West Linn), and Grant Dunn (2020 Silverton) lead the returnees and rising junior Luke Smith (2021 Willamette) will join the team team this weekend. Team Fly Select-Williams is led by Drew Carter (2021 Tigard) who has been playing extremely well in elite camps. Elijah Munyan (2021 Columbia Christian) will be added to the roster and others such as Braeden Sato (2020 Sunset), Sam Harris (2020 South Eugene), and Aiden Clark (2020 South Eugene) will have one more chance to showcase themselves in front of college coaches in-state. And while Deep III saw many of their Class of 2019 roster members sign with college programs, they should have some other players with them – notably Kadeem Nelson (2019 De La Salle North).
The top out-of-state teams in the field include Lakeshow 17’s Elite out of the San Francisco Bay Area, 509 Elite 2020 and Team Bradley out of Washington, and Select White and Select Black out of the Idaho/Montana region. The first bracket games take place on Friday night and the champion will be crowned Sunday afternoon at 1:55 pm.